"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
These are strong and challenging words, but what relevance do they have for the church of today? Well I believe they have enormous relevance. If you want one positive reason to practice the Biblical principle of tithing, then surely these verses give it to you.
RT Kendal wrote a book about tithing. It was subtitled: A call to serious, Biblical giving. Whatever we think about the issue, we should certainly consider giving as a serious part of our stewardship of all the resources God has given to us.
In his book RT Kendal quotes another writer who says: When a fellow says, “It ain’t the money but the principle of the thing,’ it’s the money.
Nothing bothers us more than thinking someone is about to tell us how to live our lives or spend our money. We’ve earned it, we should decide what to do with it. But is that biblical? If we’re serious about wholeheartedly following God, then can we shut him out of our finances?
Tithing myths
#1 If you tithe God will make your rich.
We don’t give to God in order to get his blessing on what we do. We give as a loving response to his love for us. It’s a sign, not a merit badge.
#2 Tithing is part of the Law of the OT and we’re no longer under the Law.
True we’re no longer under the law, but Abraham wasn’t under the law when he chose to give away a tenth of the goods he’d recovered when rescuing Lot to the king of Salem as an honour gift.
And in the New Testament Jesus takes the religious people to task for tithing but ignoring other aspects of a life pleasing to God. When he does so he tells them that they should pay attention to both the weightier matters of the law (justice, mercy and faith) without neglecting tithing (Matt.23:23). And Jesus is not just saying, if you can, but he says you ought to tithe. In Greek it’s the same word applied here as it it is when Jesus says to Nicodemus You must be born again if you want to see the Kingdom of God.
Paul on giving: What do you think Paul meant when he said each person should put aside an amount in keeping with his income? Do you think that Paul, an educated Jew and a devoted follower of Jesus Christ would suggest that your giving should be done only in line with what you could afford, or do you think that he’s reinforcing the idea that there’s a reasonable proportion of income that everyone should consider as the appropriate amount to give?
#3 A tithe (10%) is all that God wants from me, when I’ve given that, there’s no more giving to be done.
In biblical terms, 10% is a guideline starting point. It’s not the top end of what we should give, it’s not a kingdom tax that we pay.
What kind of givers is God looking for?
- Willing ones (2 Cor. 9:6)
- Obedient ones (Mal.3)
- Generous ones (Luke 21-the widow’s offering) Not only was she generous but she was sacrificial too.
What stops us from tithing?
Selfishness: Are our reasons for not giving simply excuses to keep it for ourselves?
Are we afraid that we won’t have enough money to meet our needs?
Are we unwilling to follow a Biblical principle? Rebels at heart.
Can we not imagine that God will bless us?
Do we believe:
- That God can, and will, meet all our needs (Phil.4:19)
- That he has a positive plan for us (Jer.29:11)
- That the kingdom of God should be our priority (Matt. 6:33)
- That we should count our lives as worthless compared to knowing Christ (Phil.3)
- That to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21)
- My life is worthless to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:24). And therefore that means that, in the word of the song we sing, “Lord, I am not my my own, no longer my own”
One simple reason to tithe
Because of what it will do for the work of God’s kingdom on earth. Personally speaking I’ve always considered the local church as proper place for my tithe. Anything else I want to support, I do so beyond that.
How do you get it right?
How do you work out what to give to God? If not a tithe, how else would you measure your giving? The tithe is helpful, not because it tells us what will appease God, but because it stops us getting our giving out of proportion. You could give what’s left after you’ve met all your expenses each month. But then what do you do when you spend a little more than you intended? Do you simply give a little less than you intended? You could decided what’s manageable whilst still leaving you enough to spend how you want. You could soften the financial challenge by including your time or factoring something else into the equation.
First you have to decide what your reasons are for not following the Biblical injunction to give 10% of your income back to God. I put it this way around because it’s a harder question to answer than deciding what percentage of your income to give. Second you need to take a good look at what you are currently giving and why you currently give as you do. Third you need to work out a plan to get to where you understand God wants you to be form where you are.
Personally I have a simple plan. Each year, as we do our tax returns I check our P60’s to see what we’’ve earned in that year. Then I look at what we’ve given away and do the simple calculation. If it’s above, I leave it for another year, if it’s below I put it right.
But what if you’ve never tithed, and you’re in debt and you can see no way to go from what you currently give to what you now believe God is calling you to give?
Set a goal. If it take 5 years to get to the point where you tithe Biblically then set about it today. Don’t wait for the day to come around when you can afford to tithe, because believe me it’s highly unlikely that that day will ever arrive. decide now that you are going to make thins a non-negotiable habit for the rest of your life.
Second, work out what 10% is and deduct this from your income whether you give it or not. The point here is to look at what income you would have to live on if you tithed. You might be surprised to discover that 10% isn’t that much when you get right down to it. And if you practice now living on 90% you’ll be preparing yourself to truly give it way in the future.
You might also find you can move to a tithe sooner than you thought. It might be difficult, and it might take some time, but it’s not impossible.
And what if God is true to his word? What if he will do what he promises if we will show our commitment through tithing? What if we “brought the whole tithe into the storehouse”, and God opened heaven’s blessing to us.
Is that not worth the risk?
